Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession

This is a pretty nice comedy, popular in Soviet Union and Russia. I would give it 7.5 out of 10. Please, be aware, that this is not SCIENCE FICTION. Yes the story line is not too realistic, still it's pure comedy, without any attempts to become classics in sci-fi genre. I think this movie is placed in the wrong category.

As far as comedy goes, it has nice actors, music, story, interaction. It's not an intellectual comedy: if you look for depth, or mix of sad and funny moods, you will not find those in this movie. It's more like "take it easy and have fun" film. Some lines and episodes from this film became extremely famous in Russia. Still, be aware: lots of jokes will not be understood by western viewer as they are related to Soviet way of life. Those jokes are already out-dated (though still appreciated) in modern Russia and - completely not comprehend-able in the west.

For those Americans who cannot understand the movie and appreciate it entirely, I suggest that you watch it for its visual value. I myself have moved out of Russia when I was 7 so I did not get to study the history culture and language of Russia that much, so movie like these I use as an educational tool. I've learned a lot about the clothes, speech, and history from this movie than I did anywhere else. My heart is more in this than perhaps yours might be, but educationally this film is worth it, as well as providing humor and fun. It's not a preachy, soapy, cramped kind of comedy. It is fast paced, energetic, and fun.

Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession is a film capable of appealing to audiences outside the Soviet Union with its universally smart humor. From the onset it is obviously influenced by Western cinema; one cannot tell if Shurik's bedroom is Russian or American until Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov begins playing from the TV. This homogeneous consumer culture is evident all throughout the film, especially in the luxuries of Shpak's apartment, the electronics black market, and the character of Shurik's wife (in the dream plot line). In fact, Shurik's wife in the separate dream world seems almost a caricature of Hollywood with her posters and dreams of falling in love with Yakin and finding fame. Gaidai's camera work utilizes quick photography. This is exemplified in the episode in which Miloslavsky is robbing Shpak's apartment and cannot get out; Gaidai cuts to the many faces of statues and paintings that, in context, are shocked and seem to mock him. This is an amusing riff on the Kuleshov Effect. The sets themselves are also fantastic, and Ivan's (the tsar, not the bureaucrat) palace appears lifted straight out of Eisenstein's 1947 feature. Ivan Vasilievich (both of them), too, is an exact copy of Eisenstein's tsar, pointy beard and all! These visual homages would have been obvious, one assumes, to Russian audiences of the time and surely would have made it all the more comedic. However, Gaidai's humor is not intrinsically Russian, like earlier Soviet comedies, but appeals internationally. The humor lies in the situational: the police/Oprichniki chase, the switching of identities, the mad scientist, even a regal food fight. The only context clues to the time are slight jabs at Soviet rations, the black market, and housing codes. These tropes give the film the ability to transcend the trappings of a fifteen- minute fame, and allow it to be just as funny, if not more, decades later.

Hi!

As the title of the comment points this is one of the best Soviet comedies ever filmed. And that's is the reason for many people from other countries of the world not to get it's meaning. I would say that even modern day Russians - who have never lived in The Soviet Union, who have no idea what Iron Curtain or Warsaw Treaty Organization is will never understand and enjoy it in full. But anyone who is acquainted with Soviet reality will vote 10 of 10 - I am sure. So do not blame Americans or peoples from other countries for not getting Soviet comedies (those were great; and modern day Russian comedies is pure crap - I am sorry) - they were so very oriented to our former reality that are hard to get in modern days. My score is 20 of 10.

Shurik (a character in several other comedy films) is experimenting at home with an invention which goes wrong and puts him, a passing burglar, and the apartment supervisor back into the time of Ivan the Terrible. There are a lot of chases and action, so you can still enjoy the film even if some of the Russian dialogue passes you by. Good views of several historic buildings, and an insight into 1973 Moscow as well as a bit of a history lesson. Not all Russian films are doom and gloom.